News

Council OKs $1.2m for senior home purchase

A group of five low-income seniors will soon have a group home in Mountain View after $1.2 million in city affordable housing funds were approved Tuesday.

With the new funding San Jose-based Senior Housing Solutions will soon select a home in Mountain View that can house five seniors. The agency already operates 15 such group homes for seniors averaging 72 years old, with rents an average rent of $300 a month. The seniors are regularly provided various health and social services.

Council member Laura Macias made the only vote against the request, saying that the agency's staff of three could not adequately maintain what would be 16 group homes. "That doesn't meet my pragmatic standard in terms of what is doable," she said.

It was pointed out by council member Margaret Abe-Koga that the subsidy per person for the project, $240,000, was higher than the 51-unit affordable housing project for families on Evelyn Avenue, which she put at $150,000 per person if four people lived in each unit. Nevertheless, she and other council members felt it was a worthwhile investment in a project that serves a unique population of low-income seniors.

City staff reported that 16 Mountain View seniors on a waiting list of 350 would be given priority for the new home.

What will be the criteria to decide which seniors get to live in this housing. I would like the City to have a plan that ensures that long time Mountain View resident seniors get to live in this housing rather than people who have just moved to California.

Ginzton Terrace on California was built using CDBG money and other tax payer money and most of the residents living there come from the Ukraine and other eastern European countries. This means we are subsidizing seniors who never worked or grew up in our community. In fact, some of these people get on section 8 housing lists before they even move to California. So they get the housing over people who have grown up in our area and need help. That just isn't fair.

This problem was pointed out to City staff at least a decade ago and I doubt any plans were put in place to stop this from happening. So if Mtn. View is going to subsidize seniors, we should have a way to ensure it in long term residents who get the housing.

Posted by Observer
a resident of Old Mountain View
on May 25, 2011 at 4:49 pm

Ann,

The same applies to Lynton Gardens in Palo Alto. The majority of seniors are right off the boat from Asia and the Ukraine. All on the taxpayer's dime. Good luck getting a long-term resident into that choice place.

Posted by Dominick
a resident of Waverly Park
on May 25, 2011 at 11:03 pm

I agree about the comments concerning Russian and Asian immigrants. The same holds for nursing homes. There are lists of Mountain View seniors waiting to get into nursing homes on Medical. From my personal observations there are at least 2o% in nursing homes on Medical who cannot speak English and have no idea about the country they are in.Thier children visit them driving fancy expensive cars.

Don't hold your breath if you are expecting the City council to work on this problem. Thier response is, " we can't discriminate, everyone has an equal right to get into government funded housing or nursing homes"

Posted by Observer
a resident of Old Mountain View
on May 26, 2011 at 6:30 am

A similar picture at the senior center. Lots of pricey cars pulling in driven by Asian immigrants for free lunches and groceries. A lot of it is cultural. They view these free handout as just that, free handouts, since they are unaccustomed to the idea that a government would provide any thing free at the rate ours does.

There is a lot of information missing from this story. Perhaps low income senior subsidy is a requirement to obtain greater CDBG federal funding. Regardless, $1,200,000.00 to house 5 people is absurd. What is the exact cost breakdown of this scheme? More info, please.

Posted by Observer
a resident of Waverly Park
on May 26, 2011 at 10:49 am

@Steve: "You must be joking. $1.2 million should buy a lot more than 5 bedrooms. Where's the rest of the cash going?" Have you looked at home prices in Mountain View? 5-bedroom homes in a lot of neighborhoods (like yours, Sylvan Park area) are going for that or more.

Yep, I keep up on real estate prices regularly. If we hope to get any value out of our tax dollars, let's not house low income residents in luxury neighborhoods. $1.2M will buy 2 seperate 3br homes in Orion Park or around Farley street with cash left over. It'll buy a sixplex in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara.
I'd like to live in Waverly Square or even in a nicer part of Sylvan Park, But my income after taxes just won't allow it. Maybe the city could give me some money too.

"You must be joking. $1.2 million should buy a lot more than 5 bedrooms. Where's the rest of the cash going?"

-------------

LOL, I said pretty much the same thing about the price tag of my home when I bought in this area.

It appears the business plan for the organization Senior Housing Solutions is to purchase 5 bedroom homes in local communities and rent them out to seniors. I could see a 5 bedroom home in Mountain view costing close to $1.2M. With an average rent of $300 per month per senior, that works out to $1,500 a month, which presumably gets used to pay for property taxes, maintenance costs, and admin costs. Doesn't seem unreasonable.

Now whether its cost effective to spend this kind of money for this purpose is debatable. However, I can see benefits from this type of housing for seniors:

1. Gives them a social environment of their peers that is not institutional feeling. Kind of like dorming with friends, and they can look out for each other.

2. Get's them out of a secluded, lonely existence, where they can be cared for and care for others, a compromise between maintaining privacy and freedom of movement and ensuring safety for the elderly.

May not be the singular best solution for every city, but in a town like Mountain View that treasures its small town feel and wants to preserve its suburban areas, this is a partial solution.

However, I would hope that the homes are actually owned by the City, and not Senior Housing Solutions.

Posted by Steven Nelson
a resident of Cuesta Park
on May 27, 2011 at 9:27 am

I attended the council meeting and pre-read the extensive city staff report available in the lobby. It is avaliable following the usual MV City web site trail to council minute reports (gee if you want heavy details do the heavy lifting research). FYI - I spoke in support of this motion. The $1.2 million is for a loan at 3% on the property TBD. (there is also direct support). The city will have an OK on the house selected. The organization is a public charity (IRS 501(c)3) that already knows how to run these facilities. It is really no more complicated than a private landloard running 15 houses - with two full-time people to help {note Kasperic who seems to have some landload experience supported). The selection is through county Title 8. I WOULD AGREE IT'S A PROBLEM WITH IMMIGRANT PARENTS - not residents - unsupported by wealthy 'sponsoring' local children. ORGANIZE to get all local old/poor folks on the Title 8 Lists. The Russian imigrant community works hard to get all possible gov. benefits - learned it in the old USSR, they know how to 'wait in line'.

Posted by Steven Nelson
a resident of Cuesta Park
on May 27, 2011 at 9:54 am

Section 8 housing ( hmm - waiting list for vouchers is "closed"). There was much council discussion with how to get staff to set up agreement so MV poor-oldsters have a chance at this. It appears that much of the county low income housing (PMI) DOES NOT restrict low income to just "tax credit units only". "open to persons with or without a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher." is how the county page reads. This appears to be the HOOK to a local agreement that will try to thwart any unreasonable 'immigrant parent loading' that might exist in the closed 'voucher' list. [Gee - if you sponsor your parents to immigrate - it really IS your legal and moral responsibility to provide for them in the USA). I'm all for family charity FIRST, and I'm all for public charity LAST (only when you down-grade from a Beamer, Lexis or Mercedes to help support your 'sponsored' immigrant parents. {not sure - but seemed city would hold first mortage - which would be interest only for 30? years]

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